Actually I was thinking if MULAN was interesting, but then again, there's not enough fantasy to it in comparison with monkey king and after looking at your ideas, I'm all the more for monkey king.

I'm for Yong yi's suggested story for 2 reasons.

I particularly like the Wu Zhi Shan [5 Finger Mountian] idea. The visual interpretation using 'Steampunk' will be super duper majestic. Hahaha!
and
Very importantly, this story can be told and wrapped up in the targeted 1.5 ~ 3 minutes :)

And.. I agree on the oriental chinese part of the design, probably the patterns will be oriental but will all machinery-y.. with steam.

What do the others think? Keep them coming in guys! We need participation!